Covid Relief
The multiple forms of government assistance provided during the Covid-19 epidemic have come to symbolize misguided and dishonest assumptions about government assistance for the unemployed. Conservatives decried these programs as being a disincentive to look for employment when one is receiving money while unemployed. Data comparing employment figures between states that cut off such benefits and those that continued them show no correlation between ending assistance and a rise in employment. Covid relief came to symbolize the fundamental ideological bias against social welfare programs for the unemployed which could not be backed up by facts.
President Ronald Reagan
In the 1980s many of America’s air traffic controllers went on strike. Pres. Ronald Reagan responded by firing them all, even though most belonged to a union. This unprecedented wielding of executive power received very little pushback from most of America. In the wake of this circumstance, many CEOs argued that if the President can fire union workers then so can private businesses and thus began a series of management victories over striking workers. This “downsizing” effectively destroyed the once mighty political power of worker unions. Reagan’s draconian response to a union strike has come to symbolize the death knell of workers’ rights.
Uber and DoorDash
Uber and DoorDash, because of their high profile, have come to symbolize the growth of what is called gig work. And gig work has come to symbolize the ways in which American companies have transformed the workplace. This transformation has shifted more responsibility to independent contractors as a way to increase profits and avoid paying non-salary expenses.
Zoning Ordinances
Zoning ordinances mandate what kinds of properties can be constructed within a given municipality. These ordinances have been exploited to serve the same purposes as a protective wall in much the same way as barbed wire fences across the western frontier in the late 1800s. They create invisible walls which nevertheless have the actual power to determine the economic level—and thereby have a profound effect on the race and ethnicity of residents—of those who are allowed or capable of meeting those zoning law requirements.
Cell Phones
The growth of cell phones from a niche market exclusive to the wealthy to an item that even welfare recipients own is an example often used to argue that poverty in America cannot be too much of a problem. In this way, cell phones symbolize the anti-assistance perspective which states that if one can afford an expensive technology then one can also afford food. On the other side the equation, cell phone represent how products once considered luxury items have become essential to modern day existence and thus symbolize the means by which corporate marketing impacts the state of poverty by creating more essential items which put a drain on already low wages.
